Savannah's memorable moments

These past two weeks have included some of the most memorable moments so far from this trip.  Two weeks ago, we had our homestay weekend where Morgan and I stayed with Auntie Alice and Uncle David and their two kids.  The first day we arrived, we were fed an amazing meal of chicken, salad, lentils, and malva pudding.  With our bellies filled, we headed back to our host family’s house and chatted with Auntie Alice before Morgan and I headed to bed. 

The next day, all of us met at Auntie Alice’s crèche for a Valentine’s Day walk with the kids.  What amazed me the most was that there are about 40 children that come every day and only 3 teachers to help.  Most of us were paired up with one or two kids, and by the end of the day, we were exhausted.  I remember crawling back into bed for three hours until it was dinner time. 

After our busy day at the crèche, Morgan and I slept in and went to the beach with our family.  They took us to Fish Hoek, which had beautiful turquoise water and a gorgeous mountain backdrop.  We waded in the warm water and took it all in.  Uncle David was telling us about how Fish Hoek was an all white beach during apartheid and how his family wasn’t allowed there until Mandela opened them back up.  It was so interesting to hear how his family was directly affected by this period in time.  For South Africans, apartheid is a piece of history that is still fresh.  Most of the natives have lived through it and have their own individual story to tell. 

After some delicious fish and chips, we headed home and called it a night.  The next morning, before we went home, we attended a church service in our family’s garage.  The minister was kind enough to have the entire service in English because Morgan and I were there. The service was not long, but it was filled with a lot of music, laughter, and love.  Before it was time to leave, Auntie Alice sent us off with a loaf of banana bread and some cream puffs for the ride home.  I was so amazed with how our family took us in so quickly and how much they cared for us.  I can’t wait to return and share many more memories with our loving family.

Kiya's life altering home stay experience

My time in Ocean View was truly a life altering experience. Traditionally for me, Valentine`s Day has always been a day about receiving instead of giving (similar to Christmas). This particular Valentine`s Day was special because I spent my morning and afternoon giving to the community and not once did I feel like I should be receiving anything tangible back. We started off our day with 40 or so little humans running around. We colored in hearts in the spirit of Valentine`s Day and allowed children to get their group (butterflies, elephants, dolphins, and penguins) painted on their cheeks. During this time I was able to bond with a few of the children and understand how important the space provided was for the families and the children themselves. The day before we were fortunate to hear the owner of the school speak about her personal struggle and how she was able to turn her house into a school with little to no help. I admired her strength and fight to accomplish her goals. After spending time with the children all morning I went ballroom dancing that night. Chantel and a few of us went and it was a blast. Everyone there was so nice and willing to teach us. 

 

Kiya with her little Valentine

Spending time with Chantel was great. She took us to the beach which had to be the longest walk of my life and the coldest water I have ever experienced. It was a great time overall. Later on that day we went to the mall and explored the various stores there.  After the mall we explored Ocean View. It was interesting to see how people where struggling yet they were so happy. We rode through the town noticing how people where living and how they were making a living. For such a beautiful country there was so much poverty in all areas. I wonder what was the government doing to help these individuals.

The family we stayed with was very warm and inviting. Auntie Katie and her husband made sure Cassie and I were comfortable. It was so cute how every meal she set the table putting our napkin inside our cups. I noticed while staying there that she was the neighborhood`s Auntie as well. Everyone spoke when walking by. On Sunday I went to church with them. I really enjoyed the young girls praise dancing at end of the ceremony. That particular day all of the married couples were renewing their vows in church. The church had a couple who had been through many trials and tribulations speak to everyone about marriage and what a healthy and successful one looks like. I thought it was very beneficial for people to hear this information in the place where they worshipped. After church Auntie Katie fixed us a big lunch (more like Sunday dinner) where we all sat at the table together and talked. I hope I can visit them again in the future.

Sarah so very happy to be interning at the IEC

This study abroad experience continues to surprise me, day in and day out. And I could not be happier having been placed to intern at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). This year is a big one. It marks not only 20 years of democracy, but South Africa’s fifth, presidential election post-apartheid. Furthermore, the national election is declared to be in honor of Nelson Mandela’s legacy. As the country moves forward in this exciting time, there is much work to be done. 

I’ve been fortunate to be working with the Electoral Operations team here in the Western Cape Provincial Office of the IEC. My hosts could not be more welcoming. After only four days of interning, the team included me in their work over Registration II Weekend. This was the final push for voter registration across the country. With over 800 voting stations in the Cape Town region of the Western Cape alone, the operations center was quite busy–receiving political queries, collecting registration statistics, compiling new registrations into the national voter’s roll, ensuring 800 plus stations opened and ran smoothly, answering all incoming calls, and sorting out political protests. The IEC staff worked tirelessly from 6AM to 11PM both Saturday and Sunday. It was throughout this weekend (where office hours were longer than my flight here!) that I really became comfortable with the staff. I was introduced and welcomed by all individually, given work to assist with, and kindly looked out for.  As announced by IEC staff, we had dined, traveled, worked, visited, and laughed together and suddenly I was made family . . . I even found myself dancing with Rachel, the housekeeper.

 

Sarah dancing with Rachel

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the chance to sit in on party-liaison committee meetings, city buildings public use meetings, and educational outreach gatherings. The Provincial Operations Center being constructed to manage the national elections is particularly exciting. Come May 7^th, a community gymnasium will be temporarily transformed with infrastructure into stages, cubicles, office space, seating, and electronic technology. The largest media houses, local radio stations, political party liaisons, catering services, and the electoral operations staff will work under just one roof throughout the voting period.  This past week at my internship also brought excitement; I was able to observe local by-elections (elections held to fill a vacant political office between regular elections) in the Mitchell’s Plains area. The electoral team was testing the use of voting centers, which are essentially larger versions of a traditional voting station. A voting center, by definition, has multiple voting stations (substations), which helps improve traffic flow and reduce queues in places with about 3,000 plus voters. It was neat to observe how the voting process works here in-person, especially after hearing about it for weeks prior to (one fun fact: when you vote, your thumb is marked with ink to help prevent fraudulent, double voting).

On a day-to-day basis here, I am confronted by the contrast of the most beautiful and the most unbeautiful. There is the simple and pure beauty of the landscape, of Ubuntu, of people’s warmth and resilience, and yet the extreme pains of poverty and destructive traces of apartheid still littering the country. A few months ago, I never would have guessed the impact of socioeconomic disparity on voting. Location determines almost everything when it comes to setting up a voting station – whether a tent will be erected or a building used, the amount of South African Police staff during voting hours, the population size due to vote, the handling of cues and traffic flow, and which political parties and media stations are involved, amidst other factors. And more often than not, entire areas tend to lean one way or another in terms of socioeconomic status. This means that a few voting station receive the privilege of air-conditioning and the majority do not. This means that in a poorer, more heavily populated area a cue of 300 people is considered long. But here in Rondebosch, a traditionally wealthier area, a “long” cue might consist of only 9 people. This means that the voting station staff in one area will work until 3 AM counting votes because of high population, where the staff in roomy suburb will work only one or two hours after close. And yet, everyone’s vote counts equally. Everyone deserves the same treatment–respect and human dignity when voting. And all election staff members receive equal pay regardless of place or time.

I never guessed I’d be learning about issues of equality, of human dignity, of socioeconomic status, and of conflict resolution alongside electoral processes. Or that I’d be singing and dancing with the staff. At the very start of this trip, I feared I wouldn’t enjoy my internship. Now I only look forward to it. I have no doubt I will leave knowing more about South African elections than those back at home! And I have the wonderful staff at the IEC to thank.

Ken immersing deep into the culture

I have fell into the schedule of interning Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, class Thursday and adventuring on the weekends. It is monotonous but that’s not a bad thing at all its sort of nice to have a steady schedule and know what to expect with the exception of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My internship has really taken off, so far I have had 4 of my photos published in the Cape Argus and one article that I’ve written be published as the lead story of the Business Report. It’s an exhilarating experience, arriving every morning around 9 to the bustling newsroom, phones ringing off their hooks, pens and papers flying. I greet all of the fellow photographers and we check email, click around on Facebook, everyone waiting longingly for the Editors meeting at 10 to get out. The head photo editor in the morning is this interesting guy named Matt who must be at least 6 foot 7. He walks out of the conference room from the meeting with his phone pressed to his ear and looks towards the small group of photographers, about 5 or so, with a smirk because he knows there is some good stuff today. He is the gatekeeper to excitement at this job and as soon as the phone call ends he starts writing out assignments on small slips of tan paper. “There’s a truck overturned on the N2 highway, Cindy be there by 11 have the photo’s to me by 12” he says. “Willem there’s an expo on these new electronic skateboard’s get after it.” “Ken there’s a press briefing with the Minister of Health to discuss the State of the Nation address changes to the health bill, he’s a very expressive speaker get a good picture of him have it in by 1” and so on and so forth until each of us has an assignment. We disperse like swatted flies all across Cape Town with our assigned Reporter’s. Immersing deep into culture and trying to capture photo’s to share that experience with thousands. We all help each other out too, the other day I was shooting pictures of a worker’s union protest and it was getting pretty rowdy, people running around chanting loudly, angrily, outside of the parliament offices. I got a text message on my phone just saying “mounted police on their way get ready” from an anonymous number and like clockwork within 5 minutes 6 horse mounted police showed up and kept the protesters from getting to rambunctious. I later found out it was one of the other photographers who had texted me. It’s sort of like a team working together to cover the happenings of the Western Cape as well as we can. We all come back hours later with an incredible story and sunburn for the day, process our photo’s, either drink some coffee or eat some samosas’ or smoke a cigarette, whatever the routine we all sort of share in the experience and then go home just to come back and do it again the next day. It is definitely the coolest thing I have been a part of thus far and I am looking forward to more. 

This weekend is the Human Rights’ weekend and I am not sure what to expect. I am interested to meet the large group of people around our age from different countries all over the continent of Africa. I am also excited to take some good star pictures because there is apparently very little light pollution. Until next time blogosphere. 

David valued his homestay experience

Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend in the colored township of Ocean View for a home stay experience. Located between rocky hills and shores on the Cape Peninsula, maybe ten miles south of the city, Oceanview was originally established when colored people were forcibly removed from the surrounding coastal towns during Apartheid. Suddenly, people were distanced from their livelihoods in these fishing towns and moved into the hills, where they had to make a new community amongst new neighbors. Many of the current homeowners are first generation Ocean View residents, including my host father.

           

On a home stay, students are placed in the homes of community members and are essentially welcomed into the home as family for the duration of the stay. Ryan and I were placed in a home with a host father, mother, sister, and our family had hosted students on multiple occasions before. There were also older children out of the home, and one of the young grandchildren spent the weekend with us.

           

We spent Friday working with young children at the crèche across the street, which is South Africa’s equivalent of a day care. We did a fun activity with the kids and then took them to a nearby petting zoo. I only had one child to look after, but even looking after one kid for a couple of hours was enough to completely exhaust me. I can’t even imagine it being my life. That evening my host sister took Ryan and I to see a Valentine’s Day beauty pageant / talent show at the local high school. It was a really extensive production, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more enthusiastic audience for any event.

David (far right) and his UConn co-educators playing with children at crèche in Ocean View.

My family spent the day at the beach on Saturday. We piled in my host brother’s car and made our way to Fish Hoek, a picturesque beach on the False Bay side of the peninsula. There was a really social vibe going on at the beach, as it was apparent that a lot of folks from Oceanview and friends were there for the day. We were there for hours, talking and swimming and exploring, and other host families joined us. My host parents had relatives who also lived in Oceanview, and they were at the beach with us, and were also hosting students from my program. That evening we came back home and hosted a Braii at our house, and welcomed a bunch of family members. There was great conversation, and the meat was delicious.

           

Sunday morning was devoted to church. My host father is a minister, so we attended his service, which is held in a classroom in the nearby primary school. The service was filled with rock music, complete with a drum set, and my entire host family participated, even the dog. After mass, we headed back home and had another delicious meal, before walking with our host parents back out of Ocean View and to the bus, where we said our goodbyes.

           

While I treasure my weekends in Cape Town as an opportunity to get out and enjoy my free time, I really valued my home stay experience. I don’t often get to spend time with other families, and really enjoyed the fact that so much of my experience felt familiar. The house, which my host father largely built, felt very similar to homes I’ve been in before in the US, albeit with a few rough edges here and there and fewer automatic comforts. When we laid back on the couch and watched a South African soap opera, it reminded me of the time I’ve spent kicked back on the couch in my dad’s house, with Brazilian soap operas on the TV. Really, I gained an appreciation for how familiar life was in this different home and community, that there were the same tasks and pleasures to be had: taking care of the granddaughter for the weekend, figuring out how to fit everyone in the car, wondering where the dog is, spending time with family.

           

I also bonded with the dog, Sasha. When we first came into Ocean View, I saw her out on the street and couldn’t tell whether she was a stray or belonged to someone, but she was very soft and friendly, and appreciated my scratching. Turned out she belonged to my host mother, and spent most of her time outside and about. When we left the crèche on Friday, she accompanied the whole train of volunteers and children as we winded through Ocean View, before apparently coming into another dog’s territory and getting chased out of there. She would follow family members to and from the house, and came with us to church, where she took up residence in the aisle during the service. My host mother told me all about how she has to navigate Ocean View according to the different dog territories, and how she’ll accompany Anne to the market, but have to take detours at certain places to avoid certain dogs. I formulated a sense of a separate dog community, another layer of social organization that existed in Ocean View. I’m glad I had the opportunity to experience it and grow.

Katrina may have left a piece of her heart in Ocean View

Preparing for the Homestay weekend, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Chantel, the (inspiring) program coordinator, told us not to expect the luxuries we have at home, and also reminded us that this was a community formed during Apartheid, when black and coloured citizens were forcibly removed from classified white areas with little notice and few belongings into crowded townships such as Ocean View where we’d be staying. The townships all over Cape Town span from informal settlements, basically makeshift one room shacks with no plumbing or electricity, to nicer but still very basic homes very crowded together. We’ve seen plenty since being here, and most of the people we work with at our internships all live in the townships, but getting the chance to live with a host family for 4 days would be a whole new experience!

From the moment we arrived in Ocean View, the sense of community was overwhelming. While people have very little, they live with open doors and open hearts, always looking to take care of each other, and bless and help one another (or any of us visitors).  When Sarah and I got to our Host family’s house, we were not just welcomed into their home, but welcomed into their family. And I’ve got to say, one hug from Thelma (our host mom) is potentially the most welcoming feeling in the world. Their house was very small, and there is literally not an inch of space between their house and all the houses surrounding them, but I was surprised to see they had a big TV hanging on the common room wall. But despite the TV, the small common room was most of the house, with a small kitchen area, bathroom but no shower, and two small bedrooms fitting bunk beds. This is so much less than what I’ve become accustomed to. And with no car, they spend endless hours sitting in this small house, which is particularly hot without any air conditioning. But because of this, they are forced to spend hours and hours together as a family, as well as get to know their neighbors and everyone in the close packed community.

After the first night of getting to know our family, and playing cards on the floor with their son Xavier (who hates to lose as much as I do), we said goodbye for the day to spend our Valentine’s day at the crèche (a community preschool). We had a perfect day playing with the kids, making Valentines Day cards, handing them out to people in the community, and finally walking the kids to a nearby farm to play with the animals. My favorite moment was Tina and I bringing out our camp counselor side and teaching the kids BOOM CHICKA BOOM!

 

Katrina taking time out to get her hair styled at the crèche

On Saturday, with temperatures of almost 100 degrees, sitting in the house was getting pretty rough. So Thelma decided we better take a trip to the beach! We walked for a bit then squeezed into a good old minibus, casually fist pumping with Xavier and his cousin to the Miley Cyrus remixes blasting the whole way. Fish Hoek beach was surprisingly close, and one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever laid my eyes on. We swam for hours, had a nice race along the beach with Xavier, and even played jump rope with a huge piece of seaweed – so successful day. Exhausted and sweaty, we headed back to find a minibus home. Trying to wash off in the small bath was not easy, and it definitely made me appreciate my shower at home. But they shared everything they had with us to make us feel as at home as possible. At night, we all sat together, in the middle of Africa and watched a Madea movie. It was so surreal, listening to everyone belly laugh to Madea the same way my aunt would back home in her little apartment in Pennsylvania.

Sunday afternoon came much too fast, and when Lantor told us to get out he was sick of having us here I could’ve swore I saw a small tear..? Ok maybe it was just mine. But I hope to visit our new friends again before I leave, hear how Xavier is doing with school and soccer, learn a new magic trick (Lantor and Xavier were quite the duo), and just get to know them even better. They left us with the invitation to come back whenever, but not just in a polite way, in a way that genuinely meant it would not be weird at all for us to come and live with them randomly for a week. I’m so thankful for this weekend and all the amazing people that are starting to make lasting places in my heart, and I’m starting to realize just how hard it’s going to be to leave. 

Val's homestay FAR exceeded expectations

Spending a weekend, which to us consists of Thursday night to Sunday night, in a small town at the mercy of most likely elderly host parents was not something I was looking forward to doing. I wanted to be exploring and going out at night to meet my future South African husband and eating unnecessary amounts of food at Coacoa Wahwah and going where ever my legs (or more frequently, my growing stomach/unnamed food child) decide to take me that day. This is how I was picturing Ocean View, the town where we stayed for the weekend, and please excuse my ignorance: a series of tiny shacks without amenities, no AC (which was actually true), no TV, and a no-nonsense religious family with gobs of kids running around like colonizing ants. And from my experience with elders, especially with more traditional or religious ideals, “fun” consists of rambling at you about that one time they lived on a dairy farm in unnecessary detail (For ex: No grandpa, we don’t want to hear about how your GI problems flared up while helping a cow give birth OR how you amended that situation) or going to a sweltering, cramped church for 5 hours on a Sunday.

What I found when I arrived at my host family’s home was so far from my bleak, overdramatic premonition that I briefly questioned how I maintain a decent GPA with such terrible, very un-Psych-major like assumptions dominating my thoughts in uncomfortable situations. Aren’t Psych majors supposed to be good at crap like acting calmly and accordingly to stressful circumstances? Well, as a testament to my skill level in my future field, let me tell you how I reacted to meeting my host family: They were so far from the stuffy, religious, stiff family I pictured that I wanted to roll around on the floor with their sassy, fuzzy cat who is probably (definitely) cooler than me and uncontrollably giggle until they said “get this maniacal child off of my cat/living room floor” and kicked me out of their house. Their names are Heidi and Rasheed  (I’m not sure if I spelled that right) and they are sarcastic, intuitive, laidback and genuine. They didn’t make us sit through hours of farm talk and nostalgia or go to a hot, uncomfortable church on Sunday, and the only children under their roof were three cats and a feisty bird. In fact, Heidi didn’t even let us call her Auntie, which is a sign of respect for an older person, sort of like “Mrs.” What they did is feed us excess amounts of food (♥), let us sleep in until 10 am, chat with us about everything and anything, let us relax and watch terrible shark movies, take us whereever we wanted to go, pay for all of our food and joke with us when, in a moment of true grace, we dropped ice cream all over our clothes/faces like small children (ahem). We even exchanged numbers, and not in an obligatory “Sure… I’ll talk to you soon (but not really I’m just being nice)” way; we were forrealz. I plan on bringing Mother Dearest to meet them when she comes in two weeks and even after that, Manuela and I are going out to a Karaoke bar with Heidi before we go back to the States. Something about how she loves to sing and also loves Tequila. Or maybe that last part was me and Manuela…?

Either way, I had much more fun in Ocean View than I expected, clearly since it wasn’t hard to beat my expectations. There’s a bunch more I would talk about, but I already wrote a small novel so I’ll spare you the extensive details and sum it up real quick: I hung out with kids at a crèche on Valentine’s Day, had a valentine in the form of an adorable little girl who made me forget that I was going to die a lonely haggard wench surrounded by 17 cats, got shown up at ballroom dancing by some 12 year old boys who have more grace in their left thumbs than I do in my entire body, was forced (but not really, let’s be real) to eat an entire pizza in one sitting, was introduced to caramel dipped ice-cream, although my shirt knows it much more intimately, and was woken up every morning by an f-bomb-dropping bird who occasionally alternated between cussing out the cat (Grey), “Who’s your Daddy?” and making kissing noises (not sure how that’s even possible). It was a weekend of firsts (ballroom dancing, birds screaming profanity, eating whole pizzas like a heifer, etc.) and hopefully the next time I see Heidi and Rasheed there will be plenty more to add to the list. Ocean View was pretty darn cool.

Val learning to dance in Ocean View